


The Wrong Answer

by PalavaRakkaus



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games)
Genre: Drunkenness, I have never touched the source material, Idiots in Love, M/M, This is entirely ridiculous
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:34:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24220639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PalavaRakkaus/pseuds/PalavaRakkaus
Summary: When an innocent, if drunken, game of dare goes a little too far and Fenris takes Anders' joking words seriously, Hawke is certain she's going to lose one of her companions.She, along with everyone else, is in for a surprise.
Relationships: Anders/Fenris (Dragon Age)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 49





	The Wrong Answer

"This won't end well," Aveline said.

Hawke sighed. She'd known Aveline would object.

Isabela rolled her eyes. "Oh come on! It's just a joke. It'll be fun."

"Someone," Aveline stated, "is going to get hurt."

"Aveline," Hawke said, interrupting the argument before it could get any more serious. "It'll be fine."

Aveline crossed her arms over her chest and turned to give Hawke a sharp look. "Fine. Play then. But when things inevitably go wrong, I will be sitting here, saying to you all, 'I told you so'."

Hawke waved a dismissive hand at her and turned to Anders. "Are you game?"

Anders grinned. He'd had a lot more to drink that night than he usually did—Justice seemed to have granted him a night off for once—and was happily sloshed. It was a good look on him, Hawke thought. Maker knew the man could have used a few more nights off.

"I'm always game."

Hawke huffed a laugh, and settled to wait.

They were playing a game of dare. So far, Hawke had been dared to kiss two of her companions (she didn't see how that was considered a dare), buy them all a round of drinks, and admit which parts of one of Varric's earlier story were true, which would have probably been somewhat embarrassing if she hadn't had a few mugs of ale in her. All in all, it had been a fun evening, and would only get funnier once Anders got to do what Isabela had dared him to do.

She could hardly wait.

No more than half an hour had passed when the door opened and Fenris stepped in. As if on command, everyone turned to look at Anders, who was already rising from his seat, grinning and wobbly with drink, looking very much ready provide them all with entertainment.

He moved fast for someone as drunk as he was. Fenris hadn't taken two steps into the room before Anders was down on one knee in front of him. Fenris paused and stared, looking more confused than he'd ever been. Hawke had hard time keeping her face neutral as she watched.

"Will you marry me?" Anders asked. Hawke could hear him struggling to stifle a laugh.

Fenris drew in a breath and froze. His eyes were very wide as he kept staring at Anders. The only sound in the room was the faint giggle Merrill tried to suppress behind her palm.

"Well, Broody," Varric said after nothing had happened for a while. "Answer the gentleman."

Fenris glanced at Varric, and then his eyes returned to Anders. He opened his mouth, and before a sound came out of it, Hawke realised things were going to go spectacularly wrong. She began to get up from her seat, one hand raised towards Fenris to stop him, but she wasn't fast enough.

"Yes," Fenris said, voice quiet but serious.

The silence that fell over the room echoed like the toll of a bell. Hawke froze, half standing, her hand futilely reaching out.

The drunken smile on Anders' face fell. "Wait, _what_?"

Fenris took a step back. With a look of dawning horror on his face, he stared at Anders.

"Fenris—" Hawke began to say.

Green eyes glanced at her, then at the shocked faces around the table.

"Fenris," Anders said.

Fenris's eyes returned to the mage, and for a briefest moment, they filled with raw pain unlike anything Hawke had ever seen Fenris express. She opened her mouth to say something, to diffuse the situation in some way and fix the damage they had unwittingly done, but yet again, she was too slow.

Fenris turned on his heels and was gone.

Anders staggered to his feet. "Fenris, _wait_!" Stumbling, he rushed to the door Fenris had left open behind him and out of the room. Hawke could hear the frantic clatter of his booted feet on the stairs.

Very slowly, she straightened, lowered her hand and turned to look at her remaining companions, sitting in stunned silence around the table.

 _I told you so_ , the look on Aveline's face said, but at least she had the good sense to stay quiet. The rest of them looked either shocked, or worried, or both as they stared at each other.

"Why are you all just _sitting_ there?" Isabela's voice broke the silence. "We have to go after them before someone dies."

That got them all moving. Hawke was the first out of the room and down the stairs, the others at her heels. They got a few angry looks and yells as they rushed to the front door between tables, but none of them paid attention. A spilled ale or a few trampled toes meant very little right now.

Hawke feared she would already be too late when she ran out of the door of the tavern to the street. She could hear her heart thumping in her ears as she looked at both directions, and a faint sigh of relief escaped her as she spotted Fenris marching away, back stiff, and Anders stumbling after him. At least they were still both alive.

She hurried after them, the others following her; there was not much else they could do.

"Fenris, wait! Stop!" Anders called.

The elf didn't show any sign that he'd heard, and it was probably better that way. If Anders caught up with him, things would get ugly, and Hawke wasn't sure how much she or anyone else could do to stop it.

"If you don't stop right bloody now, I will fucking well set you on fire!"

Fenris whirled around, and Hawke and the rest of her companions stopped, only a few steps behind Anders.

"Do it then! That would hurt less—"

Hawke cursed under her breath. It had just been a bit of harmless fun, no one had been meant to get hurt—

"Fenris, please, I'm sorry," Anders said.

Fenris glared. "No, you are not. You are enjoying my humiliation."

" _No_ ," Anders said fervently. "No, you have to believe me, I didn't mean it to go this way. I'm sorry, all right?"

Fenris took a threatening step closer. "You _will_ be."

Anders staggered backwards, both hands raised in surrender. "Fenris, no, please. I deserve a punch, I know that, but I—but, you see—"

"Shut up," Fenris snapped. "Go away. Never cross my path, and I may let you live." He turned around and began to march away again.

Anders was either braver or stupider or maybe just far more drunk than Hawke had ever expected; he rushed after Fenris, caught the elf by the arm and forced him to stop.

"Fenris, please."

Fenris yanked his arm free from Anders' grip. "Shut your mouth, or I will shut it for you, mage." He turned away, but Anders caught his arm again and pulled him back. Fenris's tattoos flared in warning, but Anders didn't back away this time. His hand stayed firmly around Fenris's metal-covered wrist.

Someone was going to die, Hawke was certain of it.

"Fenris, please don't go, please let me fix this, please let me make this right."

Hawke had no idea how Anders could be able to do that. He was a healer, but there were some things no amount of magic could mend. Broken hearts were on top of that list.

"And how, pray tell, would you do that?" Fenris's voice was filled with sarcasm. He pulled himself free from Anders' hold, but stayed where he was this time. He was still glowing blue.

"Well," Anders said, the word so quiet Hawke could barely hear it, even in the silence of the night, "I could ask you again."

Hawke would have not thought it possible, but the lyrium flared brighter until Fenris was like an elf-sized blue torch in the middle of the empty street.

" _What_?!" Fenris's voice was full of anger and disbelief, but she could still hear the pain lurking under it.

She took a step closer, a hand outreached in hopes of being able to silence Anders this time, or at least stop Fenris, before she lost one of her friends.

"Yes, and—and you'd say yes again, and it would be all right, because this time, I'd mean it. I would, I swear."

Hawke froze. Her throat was suddenly very tight, and she wasn't sure why there was such a strange hot prickling in her eyes. She swallowed thickly and let her hand fall.

They all waited.

"What?" Fenris whispered. The glow of his tattoos dimmed, leaving behind only the flickering after-images in Hawke's eyes.

"Please, let me," Anders said—begged, really.

There was a long, silent moment. Hawke held her breath, and the stillness around her suggested that she wasn't the only one.

Mutely, Fenris nodded.

Without hesitation, Anders went down to one knee in front of him again, right there in the middle of the dark street. He looked up, and Hawke had never seen such hope in a man's eyes. She could feel her heart thrumming against her ribs as she watched the two of them.

"Will you marry me?" Anders' voice shook. "For real. Please, Fenris."

Fenris opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He stood very still in front of Anders, and there was something wild and unfamiliar in his eyes. Hawke could see the hopeful look on Anders' face falter as he stayed there kneeling, and the tightness in her throat was getting worse. So was the annoying prickling in her eyes.

They stood there, all of them, silent and unmoving. It felt like eternity.

"Yes," Fenris said, the word nothing but a breath, barely audible.

"Fuck," Anders whispered. His voice hadn't gotten any steadier. "Thank you."

Hawke exhaled hard, and then found she couldn't close her mouth—there was still too much surprise in the way.

Fenris offered his hand to Anders and when the mage took it, pulled him to his feet. Anders seemed wobbly, and Hawke wasn't sure if it was still the drink, or something else, but she didn't think it mattered anymore.

Fenris pulled Anders into his arms and kissed him.

Varric whistled, but both Fenris and Anders seemed oblivious to it. Hawke could only keep staring, but at least the tightness in her throat had eased. Her eyes were still hot and prickling though. Must have been tiredness—it was way past midnight, after all.

"Oh, wow," Anders said when Fenris finally released his mouth. "I should have proposed you a lot sooner."

Fenris laughed, light and happy in a way Hawke had not known him capable of, and the sound of it seemed to fill the street. He pulled Anders close again, and the next kiss he gave the mage looked intense enough that Hawke was glad there were no children around to see it.

She could only shake her head as she watched them. If she hadn't witnessed it with her own two eyes, she would have never believed it. She was glad they were all standing there, because if she'd had to tell this to the others, they would have called her a liar.

Merrill was the first one to break the silence that had fallen over them. "Are we going to start the wedding arrangements now?" she asked.

Hawke glanced at her and then at Fenris and Anders, standing there in the middle of the street, in each other's arms like the idiots they were.

"Yes," she said slowly. "I suppose we are."

For a while there, she'd been sure they'd have to start funeral arrangements; this was much better.


End file.
